Many workers wear safety shoes at work. This is especially true in the construction and heavy equipment industries where there is a possibility that large and heavy items may fall on a worker's foot.
The most common type of safety shoe is the steel toed work boot or steel toed work shoe in which a steel plate is embedded in the toe box section of the shoe or boot.
While such boots and shoes have been quite successful and have saved countless injuries, these items still have several drawbacks which have inhibited the full use of such safety devices.
For example, most of these foot protecting devices are not conducive to being worn outside the workplace in situations which really call for foot protection. The most common of these situations occurs when someone works at home, cutting wood, mowing a lawn, or the like. In such a situation, safety requires foot protection as much as in the workplace, but many people who would otherwise wear protective shoes at work, do not wear such "work" shoes at home. Many protective shoes are viewed as being uncomfortable for home use and are thus not worn for comfort or other such reasons.
Still further, many people opt not to wear a protective shoe outside in cold weather because the steel plate in the shoe makes the wearer's foot cold. Steel is a good conductor of heat, and thus, if the steel plate of a protective shoe is in contact with a wearer's foot, that foot will likely be uncomfortable.
Yet a further drawback associated with many work shoes is the possibility of trapping a wearer's foot in the shoe if a heavy item falls on that wearer's foot and severely deforms the steel protective plate. The collapse of the steel protective plate may trap the wearer's foot in the shoe, thereby raising a risk to the wearer.
Still further, many safety shoes, include a sole that may be non-skid on one surface, yet may skid on another surface. Such skidding may occur in a home environment, and thus discourage the wearing of the shoe at home.
Therefore, there is a need for a foot safety guard that is conducive to being worn in all situations requiring foot protection, both in the workplace and outside the workplace, yet will be comfortable in cold conditions and can be quickly removed from a wearer's foot even if the protective plate is deformed and partially collapsed and can be adapted to be non-slip in a wide variety of situations.